


Cold Cases, Colder Ends

by modestmink



Category: Until Dawn, Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Gen, Psychological Trauma, Severe Injury, it's october tho so it's time for spooky shit, this is gonna be pretty fucked up you guys, viewer discretion is absolutely advised
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 11:30:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12431910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modestmink/pseuds/modestmink
Summary: The Washington Sisters, vanished into the woods on that fateful night in February, were lost to the world of the living, as far as anyone could find. No search parties or police presence could uncover them.Just beneath the ground, though, one sole sister battled with life and death to stay alive inside the frigid mountain, the hope for survival growing more and more faint with every passing day.





	1. Isolation

**Author's Note:**

> //shows up to the Until Dawn fandom 2 years late
> 
> hey everybody!!! this is the first time i've posted a fic in a while, hoo boy. let me know how it is!
> 
> also, this is gonna be a several-chapter thing, so stay tuned!

_**October** **29th**  
_

_"...I guess I didn't know. Mom and Dad never let on. Funny how you can not even know your own brother. I kinda need a good cry thinking about how lonely he must feel..."_

 

* * *

 

 

When bleary eyes finally found themselves able to force open, it was so dark, Hannah almost thought she might have been blind.

It was fortunate for her that blindness wasn't the case, though, even if finally waking did reunite her with throbbing pains and dizziness. Her entire body almost felt as though she'd been hit by a train, left by the wayside after it passed and the world returned to silence. For what felt like ages, too, she couldn't even bring herself to get up; she could only stare at the ceiling and breathe heavily, whimpering and gasping with the smallest shifts of her battered frame, a hazy recollection of everything that happened slowly hitting her. The party, the cruel prank, the feeling of betrayal, the mad dash out into the woods, and now... this. A dark hole, out in the middle of nowhere on the mountain, only the vague glimmer of moonlight lighting through the entrance they crashed into.

The fall had really done a number on her, hadn't it? Jesus, she was barely hanging in there, she had idea how _anyone_ could've---

Wait. How anyone could've survived it...

Oh, god.

_Beth._

"Beth?" She called, fear resounding in her voice, echoing back to her through the cave. No response. The cave was as quiet as the winter itself. A long pause was taken as fear welled up in her chest, her breath trying to catch in her throat as she called out again, horrified and desperate. _"Beth!?"_

Despite the throbbing pains that wracked her insisting that she stayed on the ground, Hannah desperately tried to haul herself to her feet. A distinctive  _crunch_  in her leg was too much to bear, though, and with a wail tearing from her throat, she hit the ground again. No, no, no--- her leg was broken!? It made sense, given how far that fall felt like, but now of all times was _not_  doing her any good, she didn't know how she and Beth were supposed to get out with her barely being able to walk!

It was time-consuming and tear-filled, once she could muster the will to sit up again, but a couple pieces of a shattered old fence that were scattered around and a long strip of her shirt, as clean of a tear as she could possibly manage, would make due for a splint. Something to last for now, at least, until she could get proper medical help.

The second she was to her feet, she wasted no time with hurrying as best she could to her sister, still collapsed and far too bloody to mean anything good. How long had she been there, maybe she'd moved? She didn't see any streaks of blood or footprints, though. Did she hit something on the way down? Oh, god, this wasn't good, she could probably patch that up with more of her shirt---

There was no need, though, and she found that out just by placing a hand on Beth's shoulder to shake her awake, her heart feeling like it shattered at the revalation.

Her sister was cold as ice, any warmth and color swiftly on it's way out of her body, leaving her pale and icy.

Beth Washington was dead and gone. Her little sister was gone.

She was completely and utterly alone down here.

There was nothing for her to do but sob. She wept and wept, clutching desperartely onto Beth's body, as if she'd vanish if she didn't. Beth couldn't be dead--- she couldn't be! They'd been through everything together, whether it was good or bad, and they promised one-another since they were children that they'd always be together, no matter what. What kind of unforgiving fate would tear Beth from her like this? What did she do to deserve this?

What did she do to deserve  _any_ of what happened tonight?

Hours of weeping, hugging, and begging did nothing to warm Beth's frigid body, despite how Hannah _prayed_ for it to. When she was finally able to will herself to part, lowering her sister to the cold ground being the most heart-wrenching thing she'd ever had to do in her entire life, her face was streaked with soaken eye-liner and muddled other colors, the make-up and tears mixing with the blood and dirt she was nearly covered in.

She couldn't just stand around and wait here! Beth was--- gone, but in her denial, her mind insisted that maybe there was something that could be done if she just found help sooner than overnight. She'd heard about doctors pulling off wild miracles, maybe they could help Beth? Right? There had to be a way out.

No amount of hobbling through the dark cave did anything to show a way out to find help herself, unfortunately: the only exit was an iron door that was  _much_ too heavy for her to move with her leg barely holding up as it was. There wasn't anything more for her down here than frozen rocks and crumbling mining equipment, screeching winds and creaking being the only sounds that broke the near-deafining silence.

With a sinking feeling, the last-ditch bout of desperation guised in hope was gone.

All she could do was wait. 

People would be here soon, though. It was only a matter of time, right? They didn't just let people who vanished _stay_ gone. Soon enough, Josh would see that she and Beth were gone, and he'd call for help. The police would find them. She could handle a single night, right? Of course she could. It was cold, but she could handle it. That's all she could do.

Waiting it was, then. With the added addition of preoccupying herself with a small, blank journal that Beth had in one of her jacket pockets, probably to keep scores with games. Even while she was gone, Beth was still helping her out. Writing had done wonders for her to sort out her thoughts before, right? She could handle this, she just had to put her feelings on paper, that's all. Writing could keep her as present as she can, at least--- she'd probably die if she cried and slept the whole time she waited, even if that  _was_ all she felt like she was capable of right now.

"They'll find us, Beth," Hannah murmured to her sister's freezing corpse, her voice trembling and waterlogged, "We'll--- we'll be okay. They'll be here soon."

 

* * *

 

_**Day 1** _

_My little sister is dead. The fall killed her... I watched the color drain from her face. My leg is broken. I'm all alone, stuck here with Beth's body. Someone will come soon._

 


	2. Memento Mori

###  _ **January 9th** _

_Mom finally agreed. The invitations are out! The party is gonna happen!! I HATE that I have to wait. So far Ash, Matt + Sam have said definitely yes. Nothing from Mike... :(_

 

* * *

No matter how hard one could try to stay strong, to desperately _cling_  to any hope for the future, it seemed like every time something could go wrong, fate would have it would do so without second thought.

Hannah waited for  _days._ The first day that passed was nerve-wracking and despair-inducing, absolutely, but she couldn't give up yet! Maybe the police took all day to gather information, and hadn't sent out the search party yet? That'd make sense. She'd heard of other incidents before where they took longer than they really ought to have, so this might have just been one of those. That's what she was going to hold out for, anyways. Fingers crossed that it would be sooner than later, maybe even before next nightfall--- the second the sun went down, it was almost too cold to bear.

The next day passed with crushing disappointment. The days following hit her even harder than every one before it.

By the time the fifth day rolled around, she felt... empty. Destitute. Like the world was crumbling around her.

The emptiness might have had something to do with the pains wracking her stomach, though. She'd never gone more than 12 hours without eating before, making this was absolute  _torture._ The occasional rat that churned her stomach and shook her with guilt just wasn't enough.

Over the passing days, too, she'd struggled to turn this place into something that even  _vaguely_  felt like a home. She'd moved a metal sheet, counting down the days to freedom, and also making herself a little wood frame for a bed. Easier to lay around on than a plain-old stone surface, right? That's what she kept telling herself, anyways. She needed _something_  to hold onto as positive, anything at all.

She did a lot of lying around and thinking, now. What more was there to do? She woke up when sun poured in through the roof, and fought to stay awake with nothing to do all throughout the day until the moonlight came back. She couldn't leave to occupy herself, and there wasn't anything down here for her, leaving her with only her thoughts and regrets.

Regrets came more and more with every passing day, too. They were almost starting to outweigh the thoughts, really.

This morning, too, a common one assailed her as the evening passed at snailpace: what was she thinking, running away from the house? Was she stupid? It was freezing outside, anything could have happened! And why would she even think, for a minute, that Mike would feel the same about her? He was with Emily, and Hannah wasn't about to tread on her toes, she wasn't like that. She was a hormonal idiot at the wrong moment, and now, while she starved deep beneath the earth, she was paying for that. Ohh, lord, was she paying the price for everything.

So was Beth, though. That may have been the worst part. Beth was paying that price right along with her. They really were inseperable, weren't they?

Now, not only was her mistake self-distructive _and_  impulsive, but it was also murderous, because no matter what was she spun it, Beth's death was ultimately her fault when it boiled right down to it.

If she hadn't been such a baby about the whole thing, Beth would still be alive right now. What kind of sad excuse for a sister was she?

Beth deserved better. Josh deserved better.

Maybe she even deserved what was happening to her, for putting them through all this.

No amount of self-loathing was going to get the winter to stop trying to freeze her to death, though, and a sharp breeze that swept through the cave reminded her of that. Her thin blouse wasn't enough to do anything, not even for the parts that it _did_  cover. What was she thinking, going out in the cold dressed like this? Stupid stupid stupid.

After struggling to get to her feet for a moment, she moved out of the main "living area" she had, if she could even call it that--- how much living was _actually_  going on here?--- and down the path, turning into the section bearing a cross, and, just beside it, lied her sister's pale body, unable to be buried by her slowly-dying older sibling.

Hannah could barely look at her. Did she deserve to look at her? She doubted it. Right now, though, she had to push past those harsh thoughts. Beth's sweater, no matter hor mud-covered it was, would be  _vastly_  warmer than her thin shirt, and she needed it. It felt gross and wrong to take Beth's clothes, like she was desicrating a grave, but there was nothing for it. The search party could be here any day now, and how was she supposed to honor her sister's memory if they found her chilled to death? Fighting to survive would've been all for _nothing_ if she just rolled over and died.

Beth coming out to look for her would've been totally useless, and she wouldn't dare do that to her.

One thing was for sure, though, she _really_ wished she'd pulled the sweater off of her when Beth was still warm. Now she was stiff, and quite frankly, the possibility of dislocating one of her arms while she pulled it off was a terrifying thought in and of itself. With a lot of careful tugging and gentle movements, though, she managed to pull it off of her, hurriedly putting it on the second it was off Beth's body.

Good _god_ , that was so much better. She almost let out a sigh of relief the second she'd gotten it on.

For now, though, she couldn't bear to be around Beth's body any longer, retreating back out to the "hall." The tears were coming on again from the brief encounter alone--- but, this time, less at the situation, and more at herself. What was she doing? How could she steal from her _dead sister_? She knew she needed it, but--- god, why didn't she prevent the situation that kept her from needing it? She was sick. What was the point of getting out of here if she couldn't live with herself anymore? How was she supposed to manage, if she got found?

Hannah's hand shakily lifted to fiddle with the locket that Beth had given her, as she did often to calm herself down, gnawing at her lower lip and struggling to pull it together, but she failed miserably. She couldn't keep this--- it hurt too much. She was too weak to even keep a momento of her sister, christ. She was pathetic, wasn't she?

Abandoning it as far away from her as she could get, at the very end of the "hall," she went back to her "bed," lying down. She needed to write. Put something positive on paper, maybe. Thinking positive should help, right? If she tried to lighten the mood with nice words, she would feel better, right?

She doubted it, but at this point, she needed to try _anything,_ just to stay sane. She was starting to crumble, and there was little else she could do about it.

She was going to be forgotten, and all she could do was sit by and watch it happen.

 

* * *

 

_**Day 5** _

_I've never been so HUNGRY. It feels like my stomach is twisting around inside. I took Beth's sweater. Much warmer now. She's still looking out for me._


End file.
